things aren't always as they seem

Yesterday’s News

I love traffic reports, really I do. I make sure that I’m paying attention to the time so that I can catch the traffic reports on the radio.

But there’s one radio station that is a bit confused. On more than one occasion, I’ve heard one of their early morning reports and it was full of traffic problems: stalled vehicles, traffic lights not functioning accidents, buildings on fire, water mains broken, Interstate lanes shut down. Only I’ll be driving on the Interstate at the exact spot where they say it has some lanes shut down and all lanes are open. Not just open, but not any slowdown whatsoever and no police cars in sight.

They report that traffic is stop-and-go from point A to point B on the three or four major roadways. Really? It’s 5:30 a.m. and I’m not seeing any sign of that.

I’m pretty sure that this radio station was broadcasting the traffic reports from the afternoon before. Or maybe not exactly the previous afternoon, but any weekday afternoon’s report. It certainly had nothing to do with current traffic conditions. It was just yesterday’s news.